Assurance

NYC, 2011

Synonym discussion from Merriam Webster:

Ensure, insure, assure, secure mean to make a thing or person sure. ensure, insure, and assure are interchangeable in many contexts where they indicate the making certain or inevitable of an outcome, but ensure may imply a virtual guarantee ensured the safety of the refugees, while insure sometimes stresses the taking of necessary measures beforehand insure the success of the party, and assure distinctively implies the removal of doubt and suspense from a person's mind assure you that no harm will be done. secure implies action taken to guard against attack or loss secure their position.

While the noun "ensurance" does not exist, it's been in my head lately, as the idea that "insurance" should actually be "ensurance" or "assurance" rather than, or in addition to, being insurance.


The day America shut down in face of Obamacare* being implemented, Dylan received her paperwork for fully-employer-paid Cadillac GHC (best HMO in Southwestern WI by far) health insurance. Mine isn't free, but at $280/month, it's really a steal. Though our insurance does not begin until October 19, the assurance - the "ensurance" it gives us from the very date of many of our peers crisis beginnings - is astounding. For years now we've been on catastrophic plans - $90/month for the two of us, with a $10,000 (and very picky) deductible. That means either one of us would have to get really injured or sick before it even kicked in. It never did, thankfully. It gave us security against going bankrupt, but that's about all. And it was all we could afford.

Any kind of protection against chaos is so beneficial in our world. We have enough to worry about, and as Buddhist teachings say: old age, sickness and death are the three main ones. We will, without a doubt, everyone, die at some point, and likely along the way we will have many other little or not-so-little near deaths. To not have this basic security assured is absurd.  I cannot even begin to express my incredible gratitude to both the loophole law that keeps my wife and I married in a state where same-sex marriage is still illegal**, as well as to her place of employment for covering our asses. And, at the same time, I mourn. I mourn for this most basic need removed from the plates of many human beings in America.

Ensurance should be a given - an implied understanding that we all will suffer physical ailments. Even better would be assurance - A guarantee, as life guarantees we will fall apart, that we will be able to get the care we need.

Fuck insurance. We need ensurance, assurance: we need security.


*For clarification on exactly what was supposed to occur on October 1, see this article.

**Because Dylan's gender was male at the time of our marriage, and because there's a horrible marital law in Wisconsin, as well as other states, that basically does not recognize gender change in regards to marriage, we are still married (as a heterosexual couple) no matter what her legal status is in all other ways.